A little bit more than patriotism. A little bit lower than jingoism. ---
Nirendra Dev

Sunday, October 25, 2015

A Paper Tiger !! And His Moral Force in a Democracy

Once upon a time there was an intellectual. He
hailed from the state of West Bengal. A former average and perhaps even below average
politician, he longed to be a statesman.
That is the protagonist of this blog.

There was also a man called Hamish McDonald. He was a writer. He also authored a very controversial
book. Once Hamish said in an interview, “He (our protagonist) was a friend of
Dhirubhai way back when he was a minister for commerce, giving all the
export-import licences (to Reliance). And then as finance minister (FM) in the
Indira Gandhi government — it goes back to the time of those Isle of Man
companies (1979-82), the dummy companies and the mysterious churning of
Reliance shares.” (google out The Outlook website)

But that’s a different story. Hamish also wrote in
his famous and controversial book, “The Polyester Prince – The Rise of Dhirubhai
Ambani’ : “According to New Delhi’s grapevine, the old P-D-A axis (short form
is mine and D stood for R K Dhawan and A for Ambani axis) responsible for
Reliance’s booming fortunes is currently reorganizing its scattered forces with
V P Singh, the Finance Minister (under Rajiv Gandhi – blogger), as its
principal target”.

The book also speaks about “first casualties” under
Rajiv and they were “key friends of Dhirubhai”. “Rajiv sacked R K Dhawan from
the Prime Minister’s Office within hours of his appointment. And in his first
cabinet he replaced P (or other ‘PM’ or my protagonist) as Finance Minister
with V P Singh, a choice that was eventually to bring down the heavens on both
Dhirubhai and then Rajiv himself”. Well, neither Rajiv Gandhi nor Dhirubhai or even R K Dhawan is my protagonist. My protagonist is an ‘intelligent’ man and now waiting in the wings to go down the memory lane as a ‘statesman’.

He probably
also wants to make bigger news in 2017. Perhaps he thinks he is the country’s
most deserving person ! Intellectualism is an inherent virtue in every son and -
my wife insists - even daughter of Bengal and Bengalis. So do the blogger, and
obviously the PROTAGONIST too.

But in between comes a man called Narendra Modi. He
is a phenomenon and a mixed bag. Thousands hate him. Bue he also inspires enormous trust as a man of action
in a country where gossip and rumour mongering is the favourite past time and
work shirking a born quality.

Now this man had made a few promises. Interestingly,
he is trying to fulfill a few – at least those which can make people re-write
history about a particular family and also about a few ‘top individuals’ who
benefited and have been basking in the reflected glory of the particular
dynasty. Thus, suddenly, here we come with a discovery of statesmanship. Dadri
becomes an image of intolerance!

What was 1984, Bhagalpur and even Nandigram and Singur – remains a question –
our intellectual protagonist may not answer. He ensured Left’s support system
to MMS regime continue despite Nandigram.

There have been occasions the protagonist has
displayed his anger publicly during Parliament debate and also during
interactions with journos. He may do so again, if he at all reads my blog. This
is also a Bengali virtue – comes to us with alu-sheddo (alu chokha – boiled potato)
rice and fish. So, what’s bothering the intellectual’s mind?

“January 2016” ! Why? Because Modi says he would
reveal some of the old files related to another Bengali son – Netaji Subhas
Bose !

“In 1995, in
deference to the advice of the Intelligence Bureau, the Union Cabinet decided
not to bring the so-called ashes of Bose to India from Japan. But Mukherjee
flew to Germany, and according to unverifiable claim of a former MEA official,
says Anuj Dhar in his book, tried to bribe Bose's Austrian wife to certify
his death by giving a written approval to take the ashes to India as that of
Netaji's.

Netajis'
octogenarian wife Emilie Shenkel was enraged at Pranab's proposal and asked him
to leave her house as she, like most of her family members, believed that Bose
was in Russia after his death -- a fact glossed over by a recent book by Sugata
Bose, son of former Congress MLA and Mukherjee's friend the late Sisir Bose,
says Dhar.

Later, when a
report misquoted Mukherjee saying that Emilie had given the permission to bring
the ashes to India, she lashed out saying, 'Pranab Mukherjee was propagating an
untruth for reasons best known to him and the government of India', the new
book says. 'A decade later, Pranab Mukherjee was described in the Justice Mukherjee
Commission of Inquiry report as one of the seven witnesses who had testified
before it in favour of the story on Bose's death.”

Wrap up:

SO THE
SEMI-INTELLECTUAL ARGUMENT DURING THE PUJA CELEBRATIONS INFORMALLY IN PANDALS THIS
YEAR IN DELHI WAS:

Why discovery of a sudden statesmanship? Is there a
nervousness? Is there a pressure tactics? Can someone in high pedestal get
immunity and run away from a wrong – which I believe perhaps he has NEVER DONE
- that is bribing Subhas Bose kin?

About Me

Author of 'Rainbows and Misty Sky: Windows to North East India';
'HEART ALONE' (A collection of short stories), 'Modi to Moditva: An Uncensored Truth' and other books, 'Ayodhya: Battle for Peace' (2011) ‘Godhra – A Journey To Mayhem’ (2004) and ‘The Talking Guns: North East India’ (2008).